Cooties

2014

Action / Comedy / Horror / Sci-Fi

Synopsis

COOTIES is a horror comedy with unexpected laughs and unapologetic thrills. When a cafeteria food virus turns elementary school children into killer zombies, a group of misfit teachers must band together to escape the playground carnage. The film stars Elijah Wood (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), Rainn Wilson ("The Office"), and Alison Pill ("The Newsroom") as teachers who fight to survive the mayhem while hilariously bickering in an uncomfortable love triangle on the worst Monday of their lives.

COOTIES is a horror comedy with unexpected laughs and unapologetic thrills. When a cafeteria food virus turns elementary school children into killer zombies, a group of misfit teachers must band together to escape the playground carnage. The film stars Elijah Wood (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), Rainn Wilson ("The Office"), and Alison Pill ("The Newsroom") as teachers who fight to survive the mayhem while hilariously bickering in an uncomfortable love triangle on the worst Monday of their lives.

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by whysoserious64 / 10

Waste of potential.

This film had so many people talking because it's such a strange
premise. Only so often do little children play big roles in films. More
times then not this is for the best because, simply put, they are
horrible actors. But 'Cooties' gets that and takes complex acting out
of the equation right away. Having them instead act as target practice
for the talented adult cast. This is what makes 'Cooties' so
entertaining. It's clear that both the child and adult cast are having
a blast with this film. And that translates through the film. It's a
blast to watch. The comedy hits more then it doesn't and the unique
premise is a whole lot of fun. But the standouts here are Elijah Wood
and Rainn Wilson. They have incredible chemistry together and their
comedic timing is spot on.

​The film realizes this. It knows that every moment they spend off
screen is a moment that is hurting the film. So, when it tries to kill
off one of these two it's painfully obvious that they don't have the
guts to go through with it. This is only confirmed with a tacked on
ending in which he makes his dramatic re- entry. This happening less
then ten minutes after his "death". So why was that in the film at all?

​It only hurts itself doing this. Having him comeback a couple minutes
later makes his sacrifice completely meaningless. It robs itself of any
weight that the scene carried. Why not just have him escape with the
others? It would not have been hard to have him get away and it
wouldn't have looked completely lazy either. However, I shouldn't have
been surprised by this. Because the entire film operates like this.
Saying one thing and doing another or not doing anything at all. Take
the zombies for example. The film shows them being super smart, like
cutting the power and destroying all communication devices. But it also
shows them waiting to pounce until one of the characters notice them.
Or making a single file line and attacking one by one. The whole run
time is like this. The zombies being super smart and forcing the humans
to try and get away but will (for whatever reason) eat sleeping pills
when they are thrown their way. It's completely nonsensical. The longer
the film runs the more illogical it becomes, only to be capped off by a
ridiculously tacked on ending.

'Cooties' will certainly become a guilty pleasure. It's highly
entertaining premise and hilariously gory kills make for a fun watch.
But don't expect to be invested in this movie. The bland characters,
horrendous plot and stupid zombie mechanics make sure that you don't
have to much fun.

Reviewed by HorrorOverEverything6 / 10

A Little Disappointing But Still An Entertaining Horror Comedy

So I went into this with fairly high expectations. I love
horror/comedies and this one looked very promising, funny premise,
great cast, and zombies (who doesn't love zombies?). It wasn't a bad
movie by any means but it did let me down a little bit.

First off the main thing that killed my buzz with this was how
unlikable Elijah Wood's character was, I get that they were doing this
on purpose but the scenes with him in them just made me get more and
more irritated with his character. It's not that Wood did a bad job or
anything, it's just that some of the lines that were written for his
character were almost cringe worthy bad. That character however was
more than made up for by how awesome Rainn Wilson's character was, some
of his lines were gold.

A lot of the jokes were great, I found myself laughing out loud
multiple times, but some of them just fell short and didn't really work
at all. For the most part though the humor works well and helps to move
along the movie. I think the main thing that really kept this movie
from being great is that the Horror concept of it kind of gets put on
the back burner to the comedy in too many scenes. I really wish they
would have thrown more horror elements in. There are far too many
scenes of the survivors just sitting in various rooms of the school
trading mediocre-pretty decent dialogue.

Overall this wasn't bad, in fact it was a good movie. I was entertained
and had a fun time watching it. But it could have used a bit more gore
and horror and a little less mediocre jokes. Still a good ride though.

6.5/10

Reviewed by Finfrosk868 / 10

Great horror/action/comedy. Must see for horror-comedy fans.

What a blast!

Never boring. Great cast. Reminiscent of The Faculty (a favorite of
mine), because it takes place in a school, yes, but also somehow
because of the tone of it. Also, Elijah Wood is in both. He is great.

Cooties is kind of a classic premise, but with a couple of twists that
makes it quite refreshing. And even though a good deal of what we see,
we have seen before, it's done in its own way that just makes it
entertaining. Just well directed, I guess.

It's horror and comedy brilliantly mixed, but also has quite a lot of
action and thriller elements. It's not really scary, but has a couple,
and particularly one scene that is pretty suspenseful.

The make up and effects aren't incredible, but absolutely gets the job
done. One or two scenes I thought lacked the last polish, but nothing
major. To sum it up, it's just great fun.

I LOVE the political incorrectness of it, and that must be why the
score on here isn't higher.